Silicon Valley stays quiet as Washington implodes

Tech lobbyists offer three post-crisis political outcomes for the tech industry

WASHINGTON -- In a better time, circa 1998, Cypress Semiconductor founder and CEO T.J. Rodgers gave a provocative speech, titled: "Why Silicon Valley Should Not Normalize Relations with Washington D.C."

This speech, at the Cato Institute Forbes Conference on Technology and Society, is important to the understanding of Silicon Valley.

The valley may vote overwhelmingly Democratic in elections, but it has a very strong libertarian streak -- it doesn't want Washington interfering with its business and start-up culture.

Rogers argued that the politics of Washington are antithetical to Silicon Valley's core values. "The very way it works, Washington undermines the free minds and free markets that are the cornerstone of Silicon Valley's success," said Rodgers, in a speech that raised issues with both political parties.

"The metric that differentiates Silicon Valley from Washington does not fall along conventional political lines: Republican versus Democrat, conservative versus liberal, right versus left," Rogers said.

"It falls between freedom and control. It is a metric that separates individual freedom to speak from tap-ready telephones; local reinvestment of profit from taxes that go to Washington; encryption to protect privacy from government eavesdropping; success in the marketplace from government subsidies; and a free, untaxed Internet from a regulated, overtaxed Internet," he added.

The issues Rodgers worried about -- government surveillance and Internet taxation, among others -- have only grown as as tech industry concerns today. Rogers has been one of but a few Silicon Valley business leaders to speak critically about the country's broad political direction. Former Intel chairman and CEO Andy Grove has been another vocal leader.

For the most part, though, if Silicon Valley leaders go public at all about something political, it is about a narrow policy issue.

It's not surprising, then, that the biggest issue in the country today, the federal government shutdown and threat of a U.S. default on the national debt, has been met by mostly silence from tech industry leaders.

The benefit of speaking up is questionable. Said one tech lobbyist on background: "Is rational pressure and discussion going to make irrational people act rationally?"

Broad criticism about the direction of government could upset key lawmakers, and lead to problems on specific bills. The large tech companies are, instead, letting their views known about the shutdown and default risk known through cross-industry organizations, such as Business Roundtable.

The tech lobby has interest in a long list of issues, including patents, copyright, and Internet taxation, that are now on hold.

The leading issue for many in Silicon Valley, arguably, is immigration. All the tech industry groups have pushed for immigration reform. It also drew a new arrival, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, and his Fwd.us.